What can we learn from the Cloyne Report

Paedophilia is a very un-comfortable subject—most people dismiss the topic if it is brought up in conversations—the very idea is repulsive to most human beings, yet paedophilia is part of the human condition whether we like to accept the idea or not—and in order to protect innocent children going forward it is vital that society address this complex issue with vigour.
The most recent report from the diocese of Cloyne is surrounded with legal controversy and the omitted text from the original report is now in the public domain. The question that I would like to ask my fellow citizens is what in effect does this mean—for example will this report aid us in our understanding of what actually happened—or will it be filed away under the heading ‘We are very sorry—and we offer all the victims substantial financial compensation,’ then nothing is heard of the whole sad saga until some other terrible account of abuse is unearthed.
My next question is if these findings are in the public domain what can we learn about the nature of abuse and indeed abusers—as I firmly believe that the more we understand the nature of things especially when they are perverse the greater the possibility of us preventing further abuse down the road. I am indeed a very curious person and I do like to search the motivations of people who do things to others that are intrinsically cruel and damaging. However when I read the analysis of the Cloyne debacle I sigh because it is woefully short in this area.
There must be countless studies done all over the world into institutionalised child abuse—both sexual and physical but yet the best that our media experts can come up with is that the Catholic Church attracted paedophiles into its ranks as they had this desire to place themselves in positions of authority over children.
I thought about this long and hard before I suddenly shouted aloud ‘rubbish,’ think of what we are been asked to believe—young men many of whom were from good stable backgrounds consciously chose the priesthood so that they could abuse children—to do this they had to go through the seminary and read their way through theology—in order to pursue their quest. To follow this theory to its conclusion each abuser would have had to plan to do this individually and without collusion—I find this theory implausible.
Another explanation is offered that perhaps the church creates this abusive trait because of the all male celibate world which it endorses and indeed insists on as part of its doctrine. Those who adhere to this explanation accuse the church of corrupting normal young men, by denying them sexual release thus corrupting their sexual desires and making them social misfits and a danger to society. I don’t believe in this thesis either because if it were true a far greater number of priests would have abused children rather than the minority who did.

Also it is important to remember that child abuse is not confined to the religious—most children are abused in their own homes by a parent or a member of the extended family. Around the world many children were and I presume are abused in state run institutions where there is no clerical involvement.
I have just released my short story called the ‘The Fuchsia Walk,’ in this story a young curate hears the confession of his parish priest by the fireside in the parochial house. There follows a moral dilemma as the parish priest confesses incidents of child abuse. The story begins as the young curate confesses to his Bishop and a couple of theologians. The striking issue in the confession was an almost vitriolic statement by the parish priest—when he was asked why he committed the heinous crime—he answered—‘because I could—and with impunity.’ The young curate goes on sabbatical to West Cork where he takes the Fuchsia walk—and suffers a terrible epiphany in relation to the dark side of his own sexuality.
I am not for one second claiming to have the answer to the problems our society faces in relation to the problems set out above—but I think the theory that somehow if some men hold a very high expectancy of impunity—whilst placed in positions of power—this dark side of their sexuality can manifest itself leading to the terrible abuse of innocent children. Perhaps this theory is worthy of discussion.

The Fuchsia Walk is available as an e-book on smashwords at $1.99

A Declaration of War

I am declaring war on the Irish electorate after all it was they that replaced one set of neo-liberals with another set who have also managed to swallow the parliamentary party of the so called socialist labour party. The result of our electorate’s decision is this mean minded austerity that is pointlessly been aimed at our poor and vulnerable today.
The problem as I see it is that the Irish electorate is uneducated in ideology and the importance of same when reaching a decision as to who to give a vote to. There are may reasons for this, the local element of our politics particularly in rural areas has no room for ideology-instead the local representative is a mere fixer, maybe getting a road built or some other petty favour.
Many of these representatives are only mindless backbenchers anyway-they add no value to democracy at any level, and they are at the mercy of the most undemocratic phenomenon in the world the whip system. This soviet style tag to our democratic system renders it undemocratic, in that individual conscience is exchanged for political expediency.
Another reason for this lack of ideology is historical as many of the socialist revolutionaries’ who fought for Irish freedom were killed either in the rising of 1916-or in the civil war leaving the citizens of this state with a two party cartel from which to make their political choices. The labour party was insignificant and for many years this state was ruled by conservative politicians in league with the catholic church.
People could argue that the young state was in dire need of leadership and it also needed stability to allow it grow and prosper. Yet when you examine the whole process of our political evolution one could ask why there was no room for any political alternative to the catholic democrats who took turns in holding office for well over half a century. Gradually of course different parties emerged many were formed as splinter groups from the war in Northern Ireland and of course the labour party grew in line with the growth in urban populations.
Other parties followed like the workers party who divided into democratic left which was then annexed by the labour party. Indeed it is hard to believe that Gilmore and Rabbitte were once regarded as ideologically dangerous or subversive-but then as I said this electorate doesn’t do ideology.
What differences would an ideologically aware electorate have to evaluate before making there choice, there is a school of thought that bestows decency to all political representatives no matter which party they hail from, this view spawns from the idea of hard working and in the public service. It would be a misnomer to assume that the correct ideology makes it believers good and the incorrect doing the reverse. So taking the personalities out of it is vital when one examines the difference in ideology and the effects that it has on our daily lives.
The main difference is in ones realisation as to what is a state and indeed what are the true functions of the state. Most people regard the state as inanimate our flag blowing in the wind or by the parameters set out on an Atlas. Some think it is our government or our bureaucracy but it is of course none of these things, the state is comprised by the people who are its citizens. So when a government ministers says they wants to promote jobs and keep income taxes low as they have faith in private enterprise to provide jobs they are in a effect excluding the citizenship from this process.
This mantra means that the public service must be cut to aid job creation in the private sector-read this as the Irish citizen cannot control or run our own enterprises in order to create jobs and wealth. We cannot be trusted for example to control our fisheries-our natural resources of oil and gas-wind energy etc. Do we Irish citizen agree with this because if we did take control of the aforementioned there would be no need for the austerity and we actually could in time create a more equal society on condition that we pay higher income taxes in exchange for world class services in health-education and infrastructure.
So now will the electorate continue to vote blindly-or will ideology become a real issue in the formation of ones vote-time will tell and when it does I will withdraw my declaration and retreat.